I've just installed version 9 and decided to take a 200 mi. night trip because I heard that some folks needed to recalibrate their AP (spoiler: the Model 3 does not need to calibrate after ver 9). I've compiled some initial thoughts and some changes from 2018.32 that I hadn't seen reported elsewhere. As always, my experience is my own, and you may agree or disagree.
Autopilot
AP is as solid as it was on 2018.32 for the Model 3. I saw reports on a Model S that they needed to drive ~50 mi. to recalibrate before AP was available, but not the case for me
- Due to the side cameras now utilized on ver 9, it seems like multi-lane highways are very well represented on screen. on previous versions, I would occasionally get two lanes to the left and right (with very well-painted lines), but now it seems much more consistent
- AP lane changes now animate the dotted lines during the change. Neat, and it is easier to tell if the car will be able to make the lane change
- Experience: great. I've driven maybe 6,500 of 7,000 mi. on AP, so I was worried that ver 9 would be a step backwards while calibrations were done for the side cameras. Everything was as smooth as 2018.32 on expressways
Traffic Awareness
- Car silhouettes are now available for cars passing from the rear-sides (this was only a "force bubble" before). This makes it way easier to tell when it is unsafe to change lanes
- Multiple vehicle types represented, I've seen the car, van, and truck. It gets squirrely with double-trailer trucks, but it's not a big deal
- The red line that tells you there is a car in the direction of a lane change only appears when the turn signal is used, and by then you will probably be looking away from the screen to your mirrors for the lane change, so I'd say limited utility. Perhaps a steering wheel rumble would be better
- Experience: great. I've angled my mirrors all the way out to cover blind spots, and this is a good backup
Navigation
- Directions now moved to the left (not configurable). More visible, but I never had any issues with it on the right
- Directions are now collapsed to next two turns and the trip time, distance, and arrival time. Clicking on the directions expands it as it was on 2018.32 with many more turns, and includes the destination charge state. This also reorients the map from forward-is-up to North-is-up trip view
- Directions include the exit number on screen (and audibly, as before)
- You can share a destination from Maps on your phone or choose it from your Calendar. I also tried sharing a charger from the Plugshare app, but this resulted in an error
- Navigation mute is now in the settings menu. Still only one click away, so this is a wash
- Experience: good - neutral. Address sharing and exit numbers are great. What's not great is not having the destination charge state in the collapsed view, as I use that on long drives to judge if my consumption is higher than expected. You can click on the directions to show it, but then you lose forward-is-up orientation
App Drawer
- The energy graph is interesting and is a peek behind the logic that determines range and destination charge state. Since this is my first drive in the mid-30s as Chicago has gotten cold, I now know that I'm adding another 50Wh/mi to consumption...
- Calendar is greatly appreciated. It'll be great to navigate to destinations from my calendar
- The Browser wasn't working during my one supercharger stop. It might have been the signal strength there, so I'll try again later
- Experience: great.
Dash Cam
- Decent video quality, comparable to the HD dash cam that I've been using for a few years. No sound however
- License plates are readable in the dark, but not easily
- Most dash cams are 16:9, but this is 4:3. Also it appears to be 30 fps rather than 60 fps
- Experience: good. Quality could be better, but it is great having this built into the car and available for free with an OTA update
- Aside: There needs to be a way to eject a USB stick from UI. I long-pressed the Dash Cam icon to stop recording, but the drive still showed errors when I read it on my computer. Fixable, but there's a chance that the drive will become corrupted if this is done a lot
Trip Meter
- Rearranged so that most recent and since last charge are at the top, and trips A and B are at the bottom
- Experience: neutral. Some will like it this way, some will like it the old way. It just wasn't expected (never really heard any chatter about it) and will have to be relearned
Climate
- When the driver and passenger controls are synced, the temps are collapsed into one. You can slide left and right from the temp to adjust (or tap as before).
- When unsynced, the controls duplicate and can be controlled separately. This is more intuitive than before
- Clicking on the fan icon brings up the revamped climate controls. The airflow directions are now animated
- The blue dots are now gone, and instead you click and drag the airflow directions to adjust. Not as visually intuitive as before if you don't know it's there
- Did we lose the ability to change from split (left and right) to single airflow? If not, I couldn't find where to change it
- Experience: good-neutral. I like that controls are collapsed when synced and that it's easier to change temps with a swipe. The airflow control is a little more confusing than before, especially for new passengers
Games
- This is an interesting way to kill 10 minutes while supercharging, but not something that will sell more cars
- The sound quality is shocking compared to an Atari. Especially if the volume is relatively high after listening to the radio. I only played Lunar Lander a bit, and you can feel it in your chest when the lander crashes
- Experience: good. And loud.
Other UI
- Time is now to the left, Homelink is the the right. It will take some retraining to find both instantly.
- The Music controls seem to be hidden by default, and will often be hidden after you've been in other screens
- The favorites channel icons seem to be much bigger. Visually nicer, but the map shrinks to perhaps a third of the screen if you have your favorites up. I'll have to switch to having favorites up to only Now Playing by default
- Now Playing floats and overlaps the expanded Navigation directions a little bit. You'll have to hide Music to cancel a trip with the directions expanded
